Thursday 18 February 2010

In this episode

About six years ago now the then 26-year-old Ramy Habeeb had just finished a stint teaching English language in Japan. He'd graduated from McGill University, Montreal, with a double major in literature and religious studies and when he returned to Egypt, he started to look at the local publishing industry.

Arab Women Writers is a critical reference guide that looks at pioneering women novelists and writers from 1873 to the end of the 20th Century. Their subjects and interests vary as much as the forms in which they write, but there are some overarching themes: exile, national struggle, civil war, family, and of course the rights of women. It was first published in Arabic in 2004 and is now available in translation.

It's been 13 years since crime writer Garry Disher's Wyatt last made an appearance in bookstores. He's the anti-hero who comes back to Melbourne, and finds himself knee deep in more trouble. Book Show reviewer Chris Flynn, who's also editor of Torpedo magazine, sizes up Garry Disher's latest novel.